


Sand

by sugarandspace



Series: Flufftober 2018 Drabbles [24]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Family, Fluff, M/M, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 02:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16399316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarandspace/pseuds/sugarandspace
Summary: To the people passing by, they looked like any other family. Two men and a child - a dark haired toddler about two years old. They were sitting on the beach, the autumn day cold but sunny. Not your typical beach weather, so they were able to have the beach all to themselves.





	Sand

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, little background story. I'm Finnish (my excuse for all the grammar mistakes) and we have this "spell" _Älä tule paha kakku, tule hyvä kakku _and loosely translated it means "don't be a bad cake, be a good cake" and kids say that when they make sand cakes, hitting the bottom of the bucket as they say it. Idk if there's an English version of that, but in this fic there's a version of it that is used by the kids in Idris :D_  
>  Does your language have a spell like that?_

To the people passing by, they looked like any other family. Two men and a child - a dark haired toddler about two years old. They were sitting on the beach, the autumn day cold but sunny. Not your typical beach weather, so they were able to have the beach all to themselves.

If you had the gift of seeing through glamour though, you would have been able to see that the tall man’s skin was covered in black markings, bold against the pale skin. A smiling father with a hilt of a blade strapped to his thigh.

The other man was sitting next to him, dressed in a way that made you look twice. Unusual to the eye even with his golden cat eyes hidden. Every now and then he would move his hand in an odd gesture, making the child giggle wildly. If you knew what to look for you would have been able to see the small butterflies flying in front of the boy, leaving blue sparks in their wake. 

And blue, that must have been both of the fathers’ favorite color. The boy’s hair was a dark shade of the color, his skin lighter. His eyes the same shade as the big ocean next to them. Truly the cutest kid, with two sharp horns on his head. Blue of course.

The Lightwood-Bane family, having a nice day at the beach.

“Please be a good cake,” Alec said as he hit the bottom of the small plastic bucket with a bright red shovel in rhythm with his words. He lifted the bucked carefully, and underneath it was a perfect sand cake. Seconds later the boy reached his hands towards the cake and broke it, a shapeless heap of sand and three smiles left behind.

“Wow Maxie, you must have been really hungry!” Alec told the kid. “You ate the whole cake!”

Magnus watched in amusement as Max laughed, giving the bucket back to Alec again.

“You want another cake?” Alec asked. “Let’s make another cake. Here, you can put the sand in the bucket this time.”

They filled the bucket together and turned it over, and Magnus couldn’t keep the question inside any longer when the chant was repeated.

“Please.” Tap. “ Be” Tap. “A good.” Tap. “Cake.” Tap. 

“Why do you do that?” Magnus asked his husband curiously, watching as Max yet again destroyed the cake.

“The spell?” Alec asked, looking at Magnus.

“That’s what it is?” Magnus asked, even more confused than before. So far he had been sure that out of the two of them, spells were his thing.

“It’s a spell to make the cake good,” Alec explained easily while making a new cake. “If you forget to say it the cake might crumble or fall when you lift the bucket. We always said the spell when we made sand cakes as kids.”

“Alexander,” Magnus said, his tone full of amused surprise. “I didn’t think you would be one to count on spells when it comes to perfecting a sand cake. Or any Shadowhunter, really.”

“The dislike - fear, really -  of magic is taught,” Alec explained as he watched Max destroy yet another cake, looking up at Alec to make a new one. “That’s so great about kids, they watch the world with open eyes and judge others by their character, not by how it’s always been done.”

“That is true,” Magnus said as he watched his son dig a hole to the sand with his shovel. Max was an outgoing kid, always eager to try everything and meet new people. It worried Magnus sometimes, how the child seemed to lack reticence. He hoped that Max would learn to be more careful when he grew up, but never scared, never afraid to do what he felt was right. “We are so lucky that Max is growing up around so many different individuals.”

“We are going to make sure he knows that differences are a strength rather than an obstacle,” Alec nodded.

They had both been hesitant about becoming parents, never because they didn’t want kids, but because neither had had the strongest role models when it came to parenting. In the end the will to raise a child together had overpowered that fear, and they had decided that they would figure it out as they went. Together.

There was no such thing as a perfect parent, but Magnus was sure Alec got pretty close to that. And he knew he was doing pretty well himself as well. Having a son after centuries of thinking that it was something he would never be able to have, it filled him with so much happiness and determination.

Things would get hard sometimes, the day would come when Max would start practising his magic, and by Lilith, he would be a teenager one day. But Magnus had all the faith in them, and their ability to overcome all difficulties as a family. Because he knew that they were both doing their best, and always trying to improve. 

It was their family and it was perfect to them.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a clear idea at the beginning but then I didn't know where to go with it so the ending is a bit meh but it's late and I should have been asleep like two hours ago so I'm closing my eyes and hitting enter


End file.
